Worth the update

For all you still scoring at home, we may have a momentum shift.
Good Sling just got a point!!! We ate, changed diapers, put on the sling and now we have a sleeping boy in the sling as we speak. The cost, puke running down mom's front!! But in light of the lack of screaming...way worth it! I can now cook and eat a bagel and do a blog entry with him in the sling!!! Not willing to call it a success story yet, but looks like good sling may come from behind!! Got a long way to go yet.
:0)

Sunday in the rain

Well, it rained a LOT Sunday. I got to go to church for the first time, it was a lot of fun. I did get to wear my fancy duds the Michaels' gave me, and I looked pretty darn handsome. My dad and I sorta looked like twins, even though in this picture I am hungry and want to be changed. Then, we went to lunch with the Opiolas...good friends of mom and dad. After that, we came home and Mom, Ched, and I took a nap while Dad worked on a new cabinet for the bathroom. That is where mom and dad will put stuff that I am not supposed to get into, like medicine. It is REALLY BIG! I didn't know my dad was so talented. BUT...let me tell you he took me to his favorite store on Saturday...WOODCRAFT!!! I am sure it is the first of many trips we will make there together. There are lots of things that he wants there and I am sure I will want lots of that stuff too. He actually bought some Pocket Hole Jig that helped him make the cabinet really easy. All he really has left to make are the doors and then stain it and hang it!! He can teach me a lot of cool stuff. My Aunt Jill gets home tonight from her long trip and we are hoping to see her soon. I sure missed her. Hope everyone is having a good day...currently I am in the very top picture taking a morning snooze after seeing dad off to work. I like taking little naps on my belly, even though they say I am not supposed to. I am strong enough to move my head from side to side, so Mom figures I am okay....don't let CPS know...also, keep the big red dog around me all the time on the down low!!! Thanks.

Jury is still out

So the jury is still out on the whole "ring sling". I have him in it right now...perhaps the key is to put him in after he eats and is full of triptofan from eating so much...he is crashed out...maybe if i do an experiment like Alfred and the white bunny, we can lull him into liking it...OR else he will be deathly afraid of covers by the time he is 10 weeks.
We will keep you posted.
If you are home keeping score (I jacked this phrase from Carla)
Good sling 2
Bad sling 6

not looking too good :0)

Not a fan yet!!

So, let me tell you about these girls first!!! Mom has been looking for this picture for a LONG time now!! These are my new buddies Greer and Casey!!! They are some of Mom and Dad's FAVORITES. They came over to see me right after I got home from the hospital...look how little I am! They will say they hate this picture, but Mom really likes it. Mom taught Greer last year and when she was in 9th grade and Casey was our favorite tutoree and we have known her for 2 years already!!! The girls brought me so many gifts, I am so lucky. My favorites are my bath toys, Baby Einstein CD (funny because of mom and dad tutoring science...), and the BIB that says how cute my Dad is!!! Greer is in Spain all summer and Casey is doing lots of traveling too. I can't wait to see them at the end of the summer to show them all the cool things I can do now...well, I can't do a LOT of cool things NOW, but by the time they get home I will!!

Anyway, Mom got that sling yesterday. Not the one she wanted, but the one the lady said was better...I don't really like it at all. I was asleep when they put me in it at first and I liked it at the store, but since I have been home, I scream a LOT while i am in it. Either Mom stinks at it and can't fit me right OR I just don't like being trapped by her. We are going to try it again this weekend and if its not better, maybe they will take it back and try the original one we wanted. It is one of those "ring slings". Mom thinks she looks like a hemp-loving hippie. The lady tried to tell her that extra material was "elegant", mom just thinks it is gonna get caught on fire by the stove or sucked up in the vacuum...Mom isn't all that "elegant!!!" So we will keep you posted.

Dad played hockey til late last night. Got home and he snuggled with me while mom was sleeping...Ha ha!!! Now I can have time with both of them and they won't even know it.
It was fun, if only Dad had the milk, I'd hang with him all the time...I like looking at him better than mom.

Have a great day.

Not too bad !!!

Okay, so after my long night of rest, I slept ALL day yesterday too. BUT, lucky for mom and dad I still slept about a 6 hr. stretch last night!!!

My grandma is doing great after surgery, it went very well. Thanks for praying for her.

Here is an old pic of me on my birthday...Oma and Mom really tried to make it work, but I really didn't want any part of it, so oh well. They tried.
My dad likes to smash me up and say "What are you doing?" So that is what he is saying to me right here, mostly, I am just pooping dad!!

And now my dog has started stealing my stuff. We knew it wouldn't be long, but Mom busted her with a pacie that I don't ever use...I like my hands and fingers better!!

WHAT A NIGHT!!!

Well, here are some more pics...1) I am a little swashbuckler. My Aunt Mandy gave me my pirate outfit!! 2) This is my Grandpa Tom!!! He is very very special...without him, mommy and daddy would not even be married today, and I wouldn't be here!!! He is such a fun guy...EVERYONE should have a Grandpa Tom. 3) Here is me and Cheddar AGAIN. We hang out lots together during the day. She loves me so much and I love her lots too...except when she kisses me while I am swinging and messes up my mojo.

Well...guess what I did last night!!! SLEPT THE WHOLE NIGHT THROUGH!!!! I am probably not going to do it every night, but it was a fun present for mom and dad. Mom kept checking on me from 3:00 to 5:15 when I stirred to make sure I was still alive! I was, she was just paranoid. BUT, it did feel good to be so rested, so maybe I will give it another go soon. Mom and Dad are REALLY lucky I am so good.

Also, Today my Great Aunt Sue is coming in to see us! We are so excited...I hear she is a fun fun lady...mom and dad love her lots and are excited. Please pray for my Grandma today. She is going in for a big surgery. She is really a tough lady and will be fine, but we are all a little nervous. She will be in the hospital for a couple of days (just like me), but then we hope she will come stay with us for a while until she is feeling better...that way she won't have to cook or clean or anything and mommy can take care of both of us at once!!

Other than that, not a lot new. Mom and I did a class on Friday and it was fun to meet lots of new folks. I was the youngest one there by at least 2 weeks...boy those big babies can do some cool stuff that hopefully I will be able to do soon too! I have gotten to spend a lot of time with Oma and Opa this week and will again to play with Aunt Sue, so I am looking forward to that. Tomorrow Mom is going to buy me a baby sling, maybe. She thinks it will help her out when I just want to be held and she needs to do stuff. I think she really wants it to take me to the store...she is kinda a whimp when it comes to carting around my car seat. I think I would rather be in a sling than in that seat all the time anyway...other babies seem to really like it. We'll see and keep you posted.

It is gonna be a busy week for us, so we will try to touch base soon.
Have a great day!!!

Does anyone know??

how to get a dog and a 4 week old in the same car to go to the vet?
This is a looming task that I need to attempt. SOOO...it will probably get put off for a while.
UNLESS, they can fit us in today...Rob is meeting with a contractor today at 4:00. How is that for multitasking??? My question was, "If I can get Cheddar in this afternoon, can you manage the kid and the meeting?". So, we shall see....maybe Saturday would be a better time to attempt it!
Pictures are still on the lap top. If I get time today, I will try and work that out!!

4 weeks old

Well, happy 1 month birthday Luke. Can you believe it? MAN, everyone tells you how quickly it is gonna fly by, but you just think they say that to make you appreciate stuff.
Can't believe God gave us this dude a month ago. Can't believe how much time we spend eating in a month. Rob thought I ate all the time, boy, he was off base. Luke eats ALL the time, it feels like.
Anyway, this outfit was given to us by our dear friends up in the Hill Country Wayne and Marie Michaels. It will be his first church outfit too next week (if we can all get our act together to get out of the house at a specific time). We can't wait for them to come home from Michigan so they can meet him.

Well, thanks to a gift from his AMAZING AND WONDERFUL Aunt Diane, we purchased a new "hill country and outdoor stroller" yesterday. Ours was not taking the bumpy sidewalk too well and this new one was a great deal (plugged as the poor man's Bugaboo). It will serve as a beginning jogger before 6 months, AND the best part is our infant carrier snaps into it. SO, it will be perfect for our trips to Aunt Diane's house. Which is a HUGE priority.

Luke's Great Aunt Sue should be coming in this week, too The gorgeous quilt that is in the picture was given to him by her. She also gave us some beautiful outfits we will have our pics taken in, but right now Luke is too tiny to fit in his and mom is too big to fit in hers. So those are our "goal" outfits. We want him to grow into his and me to shrink into mine Odd.

Grandma brought us dinner last night and it was WONDERFUL, Dad is eating it again today. Not much else going on. We are going to try and go see Dad today and then meet some friends later in the week AND then we are starting a new mom class at the hospital on Fridays for 8 weeks...should be interesting, we will keep you posted. Have a great day and God Bless.

Family Fun July 15

Hi all! We have been busy all day long running errands! Aunt Mandy came over for lunch then the 3 VZ's went out and about. we hit lots of stops and Luke was a champ. After we got home, we just sat around hanging out with Cheddar. She is a GREAT companion and protects Luke already. She came to the office the other day while Luke was crying and got mom's attention until she clued in that the boy needed something. I then followed Cheddar up to Luke's room where he was crying. That was the second time she has made sure that he is okay while crying...the first time was about a week and 1/2 ago!
So we still have more pictures to post for you guys to see, but they are now on the laptop, and we haven't quite gotten a chance to link them from there. BUT WE WILL!

This week we had lots of visitors. Probably the most exciting was the fact that Grandma and Grandpa Constable came home from Colorado and came to see us! Grandpa Tom was loving on me and I was loving it! He is such a cool guy with so much wisdom to impart to me...can't wait to start chatting with him!!!

Also...my Oma's best friend Bobbette was in town and came to see me. She brought me the coolest bathrobe and bath towels!!

We also got to go to dinner with the Rogers'. It was a lot of fun and I will be spending a lot of time with my new buddy Grant, I am sure. He is super smart, he can do puzzles and he is only a year old...I can learn lots of stuff from him!!!

Okay, I need to go take my bath after such a long day...I sure do love my daddy and my dog.

July 10th

Well, I can't get any more pictures off the camera without the IT fairy's help, so we are stuck with just text!! We also lost a bunch of text from all the pictures...so guess it all balances out!
Yesterday was the big day of doctor appointments. Teaching for 13 years definitely requires flexibility and apparently so does motherhood!!! Who knew! My appt. was originally at 1:30, so we had the feeding schedule planned out by 7:00 am...WELL, at 8:10 the dr called and needed to clear out his afternoon appts for a surgery. SOOO..we got bumped to 10:30 am! So, thankfully we made it on time and clean and fed...looked like train wrecks, but we made it...not bad for our first go at it all! Dr. took off the steri strips holding the incision together, said it is doing fine, gave me permission to "walk and drive" (we have been doing that anyway), but not to jog or exercise yet. So, at least we have some clearance! I go back in 3 more weeks and we should be cleared by then for all the real life activities. Luke did great, slept the whole time and everyone thought that he "looks nothing like" me. Yeah, I know, he looks EXACTLY like his dad. :0)

After the appt. we took Luke's cousin Sarah her birthday present. Stopped in and saw Aunt Celie and the cousins for a few minutes, then home to eat.

THEN, at 3:00 Luke had his appointment. He is up to 8lbs and 4.5oz now!! He is in the 49% range on height, if you can laugh out loud at that one! We told him to live it up, it may be his only shot in life to be almost average in height with all the short genes we dumped on him!! So right now, we have a TALL SON!!! He got a good bill of health. The best news is that he is still sleeping at about 4 - 4.5 hrs. at a stretch at night. so we really only have one middle of the night feeding and he is up with daddy around 6:00am. So this is a great blessing for us, we don't feel terribly sleep deprived. He has started eating a lot more, thus sleeping a lot more. I assume he is in a "growth spurt" of sorts...did I mention how TALL he is? Takes a lot of work to be tall! I wouldn't know, but would imagine so.

Well, that is about it, we are scheduled for Aunt Jill to come hang out for a bit today and then we need to still go back to the hospital for a follow up blood test. Got the dr. orders yesterday and will try to do that if the rain clears out!
Have a wonderful day, and thanks for all your prayers for us!!

Happy 5th of July!

New to this fandangled technology!

Well, at the urging of a wonderful friend, we are trying this technology thing out! Rob, the IT fairy of the house, has no idea!!! So we shall see how it works out for us.

Well, one week home and all is going well. We are feeding well most of the time, above birth weight and are very much in awe of God's little miracle. We can't get enough of him...neither can his Oma, Grampy, and Grandma here in town. Moms have been such a help. We have had several visitors...Even Aunt Marcy came all the way from England to see us! What a lucky, lucky boy! Hopefully soon we will be getting into a routine of things. We both have dr. appts next Monday and we are looking forward to driving clearance!

Thank you so much to all who have sent gifts, kind words and prayers! We are truly blessed and appreciate everything everyone has done for us. So, we will try to keep this thing current with lots of pics...I need the IT fairy's help for all that. Little bit is sleeping now, so I am going to try to shower!!! Amazing how those things get lost in the shuffle!

Have a happy 4th of July. Thanks to all our military friends who are serving for us to celebrate. We miss you Billy and wish you were here with Marcy and the kids! Luke has sure heard lots about you and is ready for you to let him try CHEESE. Oh, and guess what we took to the hospital???? SLIPPERS!!! genius.